If you’re here, it’s because you know the importance of video marketing. Brands can no longer get by using written content and images alone — nowadays, that’s uninteresting and unengaging for consumers who are inundated with live streaming, interactive 360 videos, augmented reality, and more. In the United States, digital video marketing Extended Article67 Video Marketing Stats You Need to Know for 2019It’s hard to believe, but 2019 is here and that means your marketing strategy calendar should be in full effect! That’s twice as true… Read More is a $135 billion industry. That means brands everywhere are realizing the value of video and investing in its creation and distribution.
What does it take to do that? Simply put, you have to take a step back for a moment. You have to analyze and understand the basic mechanics of your message and how to effectively reach a larger audience without losing your shirt. The secret to all of this? No matter what marketing strategy you use, if you don't have an effective sales funnel and optimize your conversions, you'll just be throwing money away.
That said, simply knowing how much video is being consumed and thus you need to be using video to grow your business, is not enough. The essential element of making video marketing work in your favor is creative content, strategy and consistency of publishing. Your videos need to be ones that get attention and engagement and you also need to approach it methodically with a performance mindset.
What you need are deep insights into your audience. To find them you'll need to run surveys, conduct interviews and sift through data. Start by gathering basic information like demographics, then move onto more detailed considerations of personality and preferences. Be sure to get to the root of what your audience need, what they want, and which problems you can help them with.
There are endless platforms for video marketing. YouTube, broadcast television, video boards and street marketing, you name it. The possibilities are endless. With a smartphone, consumers can access online video anytime, anywhere. The same is not true with traditional, paper marketing. With video, you can reach your audience wherever they are in a cost-effective way.
After you’ve honed in on your audience, focus in on where they spend the most time online. That is where you want to run your video content. For example, if your audience is on Facebook, you’ve got loads of helpful features to support your efforts and creative freedom. If your audience is largely on Instagram or YouTube, you’ll want to continue your analysis to see the style of video that works best on these highly visual platforms.
Your iPhone might do a great job of focusing on the subject when you take photos, but when it comes to video the camera will continue adjusting and re-adjusting as you move around the scene. To solve this problem, lock the exposure before you press record. Hold your finger down on the subject of the video until a yellow box appears with the words “AE/AF Lock”.
Social sharing is one of the simplest forms of earned distribution. It often happens organically, but you can encourage social shares by getting the ball rolling. Set up a schedule to post your video content from your corporate and personal accounts on every social channel you’re active on. Send a private message to friends and family to do the same. If you know anyone in a related field or industry, make sure they share your content, too! Though it’s not the best method, you can even incentivize shares by creating a contest or giveaway through an app like Rafflecopter.
The right lighting can make the difference between a beautiful, high-quality production and a shoddy, low-budget production. Lighting sets mood, lighting sets tone, lighting sets the entire look and feel of your production, so pay close attention to it. Again, you should have a professional handle this for you, but don’t forget to check your shots and approve the look and feel.
If you're looking for awareness, share your video content on social media and optimise it for video SEO. Consider how much you might need to spend on video ads on YouTube or Facebook to help speed up traction. Think about which influencers you can connect with to help expand your reach. As you move further down the funnel, you'll want to target leads where they're already showing interest and engagement with you: like on your website, in emails and in sales conversations.

Finally, you need to execute the plan for marketing and distributing your content that was created at the strategic stage. Like any other part of content marketing, video isn't successful unless your target audience see it and engage with it in the way you want. And your video content marketing strategy as a whole won't work unless each piece of video content comes together to form a cohesive marketing funnel moving leads from awareness to consideration to decision.

Most of all, your video is never complete without a call-to-action as your final slide. You’re not creating video ads just for the fun of it, though it is fun, but because you want to lead your audience to do something. Clarify what you want them to do and exactly where they should go after seeing your add. The standard best practice would be adding your business logo, tagline and your website or link for that unique campaign.
Posting your video on social platforms is also basically required, though the social channels you choose may differ depending on where your audience is most active. You’ll also want to think about posting your video natively; most social platforms give native videos preference over video links from other sources. Post your video natively where you can, and keep an eye on your platform-specific data.
Make sure to track your reach, clicks and sales for each ad and consider A/B testing one element of your video or caption and then run it again. Needls Co-Founder Michael Koral points out that, “by testing two videos against each other, you can isolate what messaging does the best for you (and at a larger scale because more eyes will be on your content) to see what provides the best engagement and ROI from their advertising.” As you create more and more videos you will be able to track your business trends and what wins your audience over.

When you use online video in your digital marketing strategy, you have the perfect opportunity to enhance your brand’s message and drive your company persona home. Through simple features like design and branding, to more advanced features like voice and content, video marketing is the ideal tool to strengthen your brand identity and make sure that your customers know who you are.

No matter what your video is about, publishing it on your blog is a must. Home to informative, educational content, as well as more brand-specific marketing content, visitors will expect your blog to host any and all relevant product news you have to share. Better yet, if someone is browsing your blog, they’re ready to commit time to your content. What better way to engage them than video?
Tripods range tremendously in price, and the quality of your tripod should depend on the level of camera and lens you have. If you're shooting with your phone, you can get by with a table mount like the Arkon Tripod Mount or a full-size tripod like the Acuvar 50” Aluminum Tripod. For a DSLR, Manfrotto makes a variety of trustworthy tripods starting with the Manfrotto BeFree and increasing in quality and price from there.

A lifestyle video is any video that appeals directly to your target demographic, helping them visualize how your product or service fits into their way of life. Beautiful visuals, actions shots, and stunning imagery should set the mood and epitomize the lifestyle you want to associate with your product.Client: Savoy (FILA) This means working to create a specific look or style for your video. If your product is modern and sleek, you’ll want a video with sleek, minimal design, plain backgrounds, and modern accessories. If your product serves a young, high-tech demographic, you’ll want your video to showcase tech culture, young, smart actors, and functional utility. Think of your brand aesthetic and make sure your video follows that aesthetic.

It’s time to nurture your prospective leads! If your audience has made it this far down the marketing funnel, your marketing efforts are paying off. Nurturing is one of the harder stages, but luckily, it’s quick and easy to measure. If you’ve done a successful job nurturing, you’ll see it in conversions. What those conversions are are up to you — you might want sales, social shares, contact information, you name it. But the completing of a desired action means your video is accomplishing exactly what you want it to.
After planning out your video content, you need to figure out how you’ll publish your videos. Will you increase the authenticity by filming live video on a platform like Facebook or YouTube, or would you prefer to record, edit, and upload your final product to ensure perfection? Of course, there are benefits to both, but it all depends on your audience and message.

Professional cameras, like DSLRs, give you fine control over the manual settings of shooting video and allow you to achieve the shallow depth of field (background out of focus) that people rave about. While they're primarily used for photography, DSLRs are incredibly small, work great in low light situations, and pair with a wide range of lenses — making them perfect for video. However, DSLRs do require some training (and additional purchases) of lenses.